The subject matter herein relates generally to guide pins for connector assemblies.
Guide pins are used during mating of electrical connector assemblies. For example, in communication systems, such as network systems, servers, data centers, and the like, large printed circuit boards, known as backplanes, are used to interconnect midplanes, daughtercards, line cards and/or switch cards. The communication systems use high speed differential connectors mounted to the backplane and high speed differential connectors mounted to the line cards and switch cards to transmit signals therebetween. The guide pins are used to align the mating interfaces of the connector assemblies.
However, with some systems, the connector assemblies are held within enclosures, such as cable trays that hold the cables interconnecting the various connectors. The guide pins associated with such connector assemblies may be difficult to access with an installation tool for installing the guide pin in the connector assembly. For example, the sides of the guide pin may be blocked such that the installation tool is unable to access the guide pin from the side. The guide pins may only be accessible from the front. Installation of the guide pins in such situations is difficult.
A need remains for a guide pin that may be assembled and installed by a tool accessing the guide pin from the front of the guide pin.